How Much Money Does Apex Legends Make From Skin Sales?
Apex Legends may be free-to-play, but you would never know that after analysing how much money the game makes.
General information on Apex Legends’ profits can be found within EA’s financial reports. However, detailed documents breaking down where that money comes from and what exactly it’s being spent on are not publicly available.
Despite this, we can make some educated guesses thanks to the new Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) crowdfunding event. EA and Respawn announced that they would be contributing 20% of the sales from select item bundles toward the ALGS Championship prize pool. Multiply that 20% by five, and we know exactly how much money Apex made from the sale of these skins.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the details as we explore how much money Apex Legends makes off skin sales.
Click to enlargeHow Much Money Does Apex Legends Make From Skin Sales?
On May 18, EA and Respawn Entertainment announced that they would be crowdfunding a portion of the ALGS Championship prize pool through the sale of select skin bundles. In the week since this was announced, the prize pool has already increased by approximately $1.2 million — and the number keeps growing.
What makes this number so astonishing is that EA is only contributing 20% of sales to the prize pool. This means that they’ve sold over six million dollars worth of these bundles in just one week.
The craziest part? This is all from the sale of four skins. Money spent on Apex Packs or any other cosmetic items was not counted toward the ALGS Championship prize pool.
One can argue that sales of these ALGS Championships skins were boosted because it’s a special event, but the fact of the matter is, Apex Legends is raking in around one million dollars a day purely from skin sales.
Click to enlargeAre Apex Legends Skins Overpriced?
Video games and the price of their in-game cosmetics has always been a hot topic. Apex Legends is no different. The playerbase has been vocal about their disdain towards Apex Legends’ cosmetic prices since the game’s inception. After all, it can cost upwards of $500 to acquire a single Heirloom item if luck is not on your side.
Usually, game developers will stay hush on this topic. There’s really no winning when it comes to discussing pricing. You can’t please everyone, and it is a business in the end.
However, the Apex Legends team displayed a surprising show of transparency a week ago during a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA). When questioned on Apex Legends’ pricing philosophy, the Head of Monetisation provided some detailed answers.
Passing along this information via Apex’s Director of Comms, the Head of Monetisation, stressed that gameplay comes first. The main priority when creating Apex Legends cosmetics is that nothing is pay-to-win. All items for sale within Apex Legends are and forever will be cosmetic only.
When it comes to pricing, the Head of Monetisation went into detail about the costs that come with creating new skins. The Respawn team is much smaller than a company like Epic Games. Apex Legends cannot churn out skins as quickly as Fortnite can. This is one reason why Apex Legends’ cosmetics are priced the way they are.
Going further, developing a game like Apex Legends is expensive. New game modes, maps, and features all come at a cost. Apex is a free-to-play game. Selling cosmetics is how they make money and maintain a healthy business.
That’s the sugarcoated and sweet answer from the developers at Respawn. But being frank, why would they lower their prices? We just saw this company rake in over six million dollars in skin sales in six days. Obviously, the current price point is working for them. EA and Respawn make absurd amounts of money with the current strategy, so there’s no incentive to change anything.
One can personally believe that $18 is too much for one skin in a video game. But the reality is, plenty of people have no problem paying up at the current prices.
Click to enlargeHow Much Money Does Apex Legends Make In Total?
Apex Legends has been collecting up the dough since its release. In the first month Apex was out, the game pulled in $90 million. Fast forward to Q2 of 2021, and Apex Legends is projected to net over $500 million in profits by the end of 2021. Blake Jorgensen, EA’s Chief Financial Officer, believes that with the upcoming release of Apex Legends Mobile, Apex has the potential to grow into a game that turns one billion dollars in net bookings every year.
These numbers may sound ludicrous to some, but just think about the Anniversary Collection Event held a couple of months ago. This one-time event allowed players to obtain the Heirloom of their choice for a massive discount. Purchasing the entire collection event cost 15,400 Apex Coins, roughly $150. This is no small amount of money, but compared to the $500 price point Heirlooms typically come in at, it was a steal.
If the Apex Legends playerbase spent a collective six million dollars in six days on some random skin bundles, imagine how much money was spent on these discounted Heirloom Shards. There’s no exact number publicly available, but we can assure you that EA and Respawn made bank off this special event.
Skins are just one part of Apex’s revenue stream. Add up everything, and Apex Legends is a cash cow.
Every now and then, someone will suggest that Apex Legends could make more money if they just made the price of their skins more reasonable. Well, now you know that a statement such as that is probably not true. The Apex Legends in-game shop is thriving under the current strategy, and change is likely not coming any time soon.
Images via Respawn Entertainment
